Session C1- Engineering a trophic cascade on a river channel relocation for the Indianapolis International Airport
Location
UMass Amherst
Start Date
27-6-2011 11:00 AM
End Date
27-6-2011 11:20 AM
Description
The relocation of the East Fork of the White Lick involved the implementation of alluvial natural channel design to create a stable channel. However the 404 water quality permitting required that the relocated East Fork have equal or improved biological characteristics as before. The measures of success were fish and macro-invertebrate populations. Pre-project biological sampling fish kills associated with summer algae blooms. There was a paucity of piscivorous species attributed to the lack of habitat that could recruit and sustain bass species. This lack of habitat was a functional blockage to piscivorous fish migration from downriver, which was remedied with this project. A well defined meander channel was designed with rootwads installed well below permanent water levels on the pool banks. This would supply the feeding and resting habitat for bass. Refugia and other habitat types were provided through a wide expansion of lateral habitat. Theoretically, lateral habitat would increase the number and age distribution of individuals in a species. Abandoned river a heavy load from road drainage and an oxbow pond with a heavy load from road drainage and an oxbow wetland for a light road runoff. The oxbow wetland was well connected to the East Fork. Tributaries were rebuilt with distinct riffle pool sequences to support intermittent flow, ephemeral runoff and backwater flooding, which provided for short term feeding migrations. When the road ditched and tributaries entered the floodpain, they wandered around like Yazoo channels for quite some distance before their confluence with the East Fork. These side channels provided refugia for temporary fish migration during floods. Post-construction biologic sampling indicated significantly improved piscivorous and macro-invertebrate populations. A wide size distribution for largemouth bass resulted, but with a narrow size distribution on smallmouth bass.
Session C1- Engineering a trophic cascade on a river channel relocation for the Indianapolis International Airport
UMass Amherst
The relocation of the East Fork of the White Lick involved the implementation of alluvial natural channel design to create a stable channel. However the 404 water quality permitting required that the relocated East Fork have equal or improved biological characteristics as before. The measures of success were fish and macro-invertebrate populations. Pre-project biological sampling fish kills associated with summer algae blooms. There was a paucity of piscivorous species attributed to the lack of habitat that could recruit and sustain bass species. This lack of habitat was a functional blockage to piscivorous fish migration from downriver, which was remedied with this project. A well defined meander channel was designed with rootwads installed well below permanent water levels on the pool banks. This would supply the feeding and resting habitat for bass. Refugia and other habitat types were provided through a wide expansion of lateral habitat. Theoretically, lateral habitat would increase the number and age distribution of individuals in a species. Abandoned river a heavy load from road drainage and an oxbow pond with a heavy load from road drainage and an oxbow wetland for a light road runoff. The oxbow wetland was well connected to the East Fork. Tributaries were rebuilt with distinct riffle pool sequences to support intermittent flow, ephemeral runoff and backwater flooding, which provided for short term feeding migrations. When the road ditched and tributaries entered the floodpain, they wandered around like Yazoo channels for quite some distance before their confluence with the East Fork. These side channels provided refugia for temporary fish migration during floods. Post-construction biologic sampling indicated significantly improved piscivorous and macro-invertebrate populations. A wide size distribution for largemouth bass resulted, but with a narrow size distribution on smallmouth bass.
Comments
Alan Schlindwein, PE is a Civil Engineer with the River Engineering & Restoration section of the US Army Corps of Engineer's Kansas City District. He obtained his Maters of Engineering in Civil Engineering from the University of Louisville in 2003 and obtained his Post-Masters in Environmental engineering from the Johns Hopkins University in 2005. He has been working in the water resources field since obtaining his Bachelor in 1982 and specialized in 1998 on natural channel design. His major accomplishments include the 1995 Agency River Champion Award from the Friends of the Chicago River for Leadership on the Prairie Wolf Slough Wetlands Project; the award winning fish passage project for the Woodrow Wilson Bridge Environmental Mitigation Project; and the successful analysis & remediation of the failed Red Ramp stream and wetlands mitigation project on Pope Air Force Base. For the US Army Corps of Engineers, he has been recognized for work of the Missouri River Degradation Reconnaissance Study, for emergency repairs on the Quindaro Bend Levee Unit bank failure on Line Creek, and for the design on nature-like-riffle grade controls to stabilize the Blue River at the transition from the flood control channel to the upstream natural channel.